New rule, fewer players change Friday night football landscape

Jay Taft Staff writer @jaytaft

Wednesday

Aug 28, 2019 at 3:01 PM

For high school football fans in Illinois, new rules mean you may have to change your Friday night schedule, beginning this week.

At some fields, things won't change. There will be a sophomore game prior to the varsity showdown. But at other stadiums, and in some cases for the first time in school history, freshman teams will suit up to play before the varsity game on Friday nights. And in another town, maybe just a few miles away, you might arrive only to find out that there is no early game on the schedule at all.

“You are definitely going to see some big changes out there this year,” said Kyle Zick, the head coach of Class 1A defending state champ Forreston. Zick also is the school’s athletic director. “You can’t argue with it because it’s making things safer for our kids. But this definitely makes things a lot tougher on the smaller schools, and tougher in general on all of them.”

One of the Illinois High School Association's new rules limits players to just one game per night. In that case, sophomores can't play in early games on Friday if they're also playing with the varsity. The result is that some schools are moving sophomore games to another day. Coupled with decreasing participation in high school football around the state, the new rule has high school schedule-makers busier than usual this preseason. Many of the area’s athletic directors are still trying to get the schedule completed for all of their football teams.

“It’s sure going to be different, we’re finding out now,” said Stockton athletic director and head varsity football coach Jesse Snyder. The NUIC is going to a one-game schedule for Friday nights this season. “It’s a change in the tradition of having two football games on Friday nights, and it’s just something people are going to have to get used to.”

What’s happening?

The sports medicine advisory committee at the IHSA — after a year of research and discussion — adopted Policy 13, which takes effect this school year. The policy limits all football players in the state to one game per night, and no games on back-to-back days.

“It’s difficult to quantify how much football is enough, but Illinois had no limits on how much football a player could play, and we felt like we had to find something that was safer,” IHSA Assistant Executive Director Sam Knox said. “We’re going to try it out this fall and see what the feedback is. We haven’t tried anything yet, so we’ll have to see how it plays out.

Schools were notified last year that the new rule was coming, but not everyone understood the impact it was going to have on the Friday night football landscape until they attempted to put together schedules for their teams.

"When I heard about the rule change I was disappointed," said Jason Grey, the father of a freshman football player at Dakota, and the district superintendent. "I understand and support the NUIC's decision to change the schedule, (but) disappointed in the IHSA for changing the rule. My top priority is always the safety of my son and all of our students, but I trust Coach (Joe) Free to keep my son and all of our players safe from 'overuse.'"

Why is it happening?

While the NIC-10 had a four-quarter rule in place, which meant a player could only play four quarters of football per night, many smaller conferences and teams had less-stringent rules, or no regulations in place at all limiting how much a coach could use his players.

Knox said it “it didn’t happen everywhere,” but the IHSA had heard enough concerns to finally address the issue. It's also clear that concussion concerns are reducing football participation overall and contributing to scheduling difficulties.

“Our freshman numbers are pretty low. If we want to be competitive, we’re going to be combining the freshmen and sophomores,” first-year Jefferson coach Jacob Arnold said. “Not only in the Rockford area, but all over Illinois, the freshman numbers are going down. Parents are watching the NFL and the concussion stuff.”

How will it affect you?

Of course, it depends on what team you follow and what conference that team plays in, but for many, there will be changes during the week, and on Friday nights. The smaller schools will be affected more because of lower numbers, but even some midlevel and larger schools are adjusting.

Jefferson is combining its freshman and sophomore teams in order to comply with the new rule, and other larger schools may have to do the same during the season, as injuries occur. Freshman schedules are in limbo throughout the conference.

The entire NUIC will go to a one-game Friday night schedule this season, and they will all play a frosh-soph game on Monday nights. Those are big changes for tradition-rich programs.

“It's hard to argue with the rule, but a lot of people are going to show up Friday night and find things have changed a lot," Zick said. "And we'll just have to wait and find out if it works or not."

Jay Taft: 815-987-1384; jtaft@rrstar.com; @JayTaft

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